A funny thing happens when presidential candidates start making progress and want to win Florida — their commitment to the U.S. embargo of Cuba suddenly grows.
Howard Dean, up until recently, was one of many politicians from both parties open to easing trade restrictions with Castro’s Cuba. He admitted as much yesterday in response to a question from a Miami Herald reporter, saying, “If you would have asked me six months ago, I would have said we should begin to ease the embargo in return for human-rights concessions.”
Six months ago, of course, Castro was a brutal communist dictator, Dean wasn’t a top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential administration, and the Cuban-American vote in South Florida was presumed to be in Bush’s pocket. Now, Castro is still Castro, but Dean is a frontrunner, and Cuban-American voters are ready to consider someone else in ’04.
With this in mind, I guess it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that we can add the Cuban embargo to the long list of issues on which Dean has flip-flopped.
According to the Miami Herald, Dean has “shifted his views” on Cuban trade now that he has “surged to the top of the race” for the Dem nomination.
Dean now believes the U.S. can’t ease Cuban embargo restrictions “right now” because “Castro has just locked up a huge number of human-rights activists and put them in prison and [held] show trials.”
That’s true, but Castro’s human rights record hasn’t gotten worse over the last six months. Indeed, it hasn’t changed in 40 years. Castro has been locking up activists and holding show trials since Dean was in elementary school. As such, Dean’s explanation for the switch on the embargo warrants additional explanation.
Again, my criticism isn’t so much about Dean’s policy conclusions; it’s his tendency to switch those positions when politically convenient.
If Dean had changed his mind about one or two issues, it’s easy to overlook. When he changes his position on five and six issues, and the changes appear to be politically motivated, a pattern emerges that makes Dean look like he lacks conviction.